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Inspiration includes:

Artists

acCessibilIty

Yes, the venue is wheelchair accessible including ramps into the building, elevators and wheelchair accessible washrooms.

All live events will offer ASL interpretation (upon request). Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.

This performance does not include audio description.

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Inspiration includes:

Artists

acCessibilIty

Yes, the venue is wheelchair accessible including ramps into the building, elevators and wheelchair accessible washrooms.

All live events will offer ASL interpretation (upon request). Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.

This performance does not include audio description.

In 2024 Dancemakers is 50 years old.

This is a time of crucial and critical looking back for Dancemakers. As a way to commemorate this anniversary, we worked with Artist Researchers to read “against the grain” of our archive, which is housed at Dance Collection Danse (DCD) located at 2 Carlton St Unit 1303 in Tkaranto.

Each artist researcher was given a one-week (paid) Writing Residency at Dance Collection Danse (or remotely using DCD’s digital archives) with the intention to produce content that will permanently live on our website.

Inspiration for this includes:

Artists

acCessibilIty

Yes, the venue is wheelchair accessible including ramps into the building, elevators and wheelchair accessible washrooms.

All live events will offer ASL interpretation (upon request). Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.

This performance does not include audio description.

“What dance gives, can also be received”

Showtime at Shops was a pop-up performance organized at an outdoor shopping space that is frequented by many people including youth. 

Melissa Hart wanted to create a performance experience for the average passersby to remind audiences that dance is essential to human existence and that “what dance gives can also be received.”

By choosing Shops at Don Mills as the location of Showtime at Shops, not only does Melissa want to activate a frequently visited space in their neighbourhood, but also present an opportunity for diverse audiences of all ages outside of the downtown core to experience the incredible vibrant energy of artists who are making waves in the dance community!  

As part of Showtime at Shops Melissa has commissioned a new work by Raoul Wilke and will also feature emerging dancers from School of Groove.  

For this commission, Raoul has created A product of my environment which gives insight into the underground clubs of Chicago and New York in the late 1970s and early 1980s where House Dance originated. This piece explores those communal spaces where house music and the people were as one and features Miha Matevzic and Caroline Fraser.

Curated by: Melissa Hart

Featuring newly commissioned work by choreographer: Raoul Wilke

Performed by: Raoul Wilke, Miha Matevzic and Caroline Fraser

Also featuring opening act performances by: School of Groove

Choreographed by: Kelly Gammie & Queenie Vicente

Sound Technician: Kit Norman

Inspiration for this event came from local youth

Artists

acCessibilIty

Yes, the venue is wheelchair accessible including ramps into the building, elevators and wheelchair accessible washrooms.

All live events will offer ASL interpretation (upon request). Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.

This performance does not include audio description.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

An annual symposium exploring the craft, practice and plurality of dance curation.

Thursday July 17 2025:

11:00 – Arrival

11:30-1:00 – Curation Under the Surface (with Celia Green & Rumi Jeraj)

1:00-1:30 – Break

1:30-3:00 – Curating in Unconventional Spaces (with Shani K. Parsons & Abel Hagos)

3:00-3:30 – Break

3:30-5:00 – Research as Curatorial Method (with Christina de la Cruz & Sanjukta Banarjee)

5:30-7:00 – Call for Curators Q&A and Info Sessions

Friday July 18 2025

11:00 – Arrival

11:30-1:00 – A Decade Since ACAQ (with Dena Devida)

1:00-1:30 – Break

1:30-3:00 – Collaborative Dance Curation (with Nomadic Curatorial Collective & Parks N Wreck)

3:00-3:30 – Break

3:30-5:00 – Access in Dance Curation (with Arts Assembly & Shay Erlich)

5:30-7:00 – Cinq a Sept hosted by members of the CDA-DanceWorks IBPOC Artist-Curators Inaugural Cohort 

Inspiration for this event includes:

Artists

Celia Green

Celia Green’s practice spans choreography, writing, creation, and performance. Within their work they often consider gender, the fragility of identity, and freedom as guiding forces.

Rumi Jeraj

Rumi Jeraj is an Ismailli muslim hailing from Sherwood Park Alberta.

Shani K. Parsons

Shani Khoo Parsons (she/her) is an independent curator, designer, mother, and founding director of Critical Distance Centre for Curators.

Abel Hagos

As a Street Dance artist and community advocate, my work is rooted in the belief that dance is a powerful tool for expression, storytelling, and cultural preservation.

Christina de la Cruz

Christina de la Cruz is a Hip Hop dancer, artistic producer, curator of dance and performance and waitress.

Sanjukta Banerjee

Dr. Sanjukta Banerjee is an acclaimed Bharatanatyam, Mohiniyattam and Kathakali dance artist.

Dena Devida

Contemporary dance curator, anthropologist, educator, artist; also co-founder and managing editor of the TURBA Journal.

Cara Spooner

Cara Spooner is a choreographer, caregiver and caretaker as well as one of the Co-Artistic Producers at Dancemakers.

Erin McCurdy

Erin Joelle McCurdy is a writer, maker, and curator based in Toronto.

Emily Law

Emily Law is an artist, choreographer, producer, lifelong student, and mother.

Sarah Tumaliuan

Associate Curator, Public Programs and Learning at Museum of Toronto, co-producer of Parks N’Wreck and Dance artist with Mix Mix Dance and Holla Jazz.

Arts Assembly

Arts Assembly is a not-for-profit, community-centric arts organization that emphasizes artistic collaboration.

Shay Erlich

Shay Erlich (they/them) is a disability justice world builder living in Tkaronto.

Ibpoc Curators

The Canadian Dance Assembly, in partnership with DanceWorks, hosted a project that invited 10 Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and Person of Colour Artist-Curators in dance to gather in Toronto between May 12-17th, 2025.

acCessibilIty

Yes, the venue is wheelchair accessible including ramps into the building, elevators and wheelchair accessible washrooms.

All live events will offer ASL interpretation (upon request). Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.

Audio description will be available upon request.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

We are working towards making a space of dialog for artists and audiences, for both artists and audiences, in how to hold different lenses of contemporary expansion and artistic references.

The Engaging in Repertoire Residency is a curatorial project developed by Nithya Garg and Tanveer Alam through the Dancemakers Guest Curator Program.

This initiative brought together artists Sanjukta Banerjee, a Mohiniyattam dance artist, and Marie Lambin-Gagnon, a Western contemporary dance and visual artist, with her dancers Megumi Kokuba and Jessica Germano.

Their collaboration focused on the concept of slowness in both form and choreography, exploring how their practices could intersect and inspire each other.

The residency was further enriched by the insights of dramaturges Brandy Leary and Harikishan S. Nair, who provided ongoing support for the artists’ research and creative process.

Choreographers: Sanjukta Banarjee & Marie Lambin Gagnon

Dancers: Megumi Kokuba & Jessica Germano

Outside Eyes: Bandy Leary & Harikishan S Nair

Artists

SUPPORTED BY

Earlier this year, Dancemakers Guest Curator Rumi Jeraj put out a call for Tap Dance artists looking to dream up the shoe of the future.

Four tap artists were matched with artisans and experts from every discipline: from music technology, to metal workers, and of course shoemakers.

The result has been an extraordinary journey into the worlds of tap, craft and performance and how many hands are involved in the process of imagining the future through a shoe.



Experience the materials and sounds that shape the dreams of Toronto’s tap dancers, and watch the process of innovating an instrument unfold before your eyes.



RSVP for the evening reception on June 26 with more gallery activations to be announced shortly!

Inspiration for this work includes:

Class Act Book
Class Act: The Jazz Life of Choreographer Cholly Atkins

Artists

acCessibilIty

Yes, the venue is wheelchair accessible including ramps into the building, elevators and wheelchair accessible washrooms.

All live events will offer ASL interpretation (upon request). Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.

This performance does not include audio description.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

We want to know what dance might look like in 2074. What will happen to dance, choreography over the next two generations?

This is a speculative choreography project in which nine artists have been tasked with creating a dance for 50 years into the future. We want to know, now, what dance might look like in 2074. What will happen to dance, choreography and stops in between over the next two generations.

This is a thought experiment and a real exercise that considers what the role, purpose, form and potential of dance (as well as performance, choreography, movement, or adjacent and related forms such as performance art) might be at this critical convergence of the climate crisis, violent international conflicts and political upheaval.

Participating artists will present a range of responses—a short performance, written score, film, audio-recording, descriptive essay or something yet imagined.

supportTHEsupport by Margaret Dragu

untitled by Johnny Forever Nawracaj

waiting for the future to remember the past by Nova Bhattacharya

Time to Wake Up by Freya Björg Olafson

Future Tap Dance by Travis Knights

Between a River and Lightning by Lee Su-Feh

Future Dances by Laura Taler

live performance by Ronnie Clarke (with Harry Clarke)

live performance by Ravyn Wngz

essay by abisola oni

Inspiration includes: Jesse Wente’s lecture on CBC Ideas

The CBC Ideas logo and play button

Artists

acCessibilIty

Yes, the venue is wheelchair accessible including ramps into the building, elevators and wheelchair accessible washrooms.

All live events will offer ASL interpretation (upon request). Please contact us to request ASL Interpretation.

This performance does not include audio description.

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH

SUPPORTED BY